Broken
by Zetor
Summary: Quinn and Daria bond when they get sidetracked on the way from Boston to their cousin's second wedding in Richmond.


Daria stretched her fingers as she climbed into the passenger seat of her father's Lexus. She'd been driving for two hours straight and her hands were cramping up like they always did when she had to drive. "Why couldn't I just stay in Boston where there's good public transportation?"

Quinn climbed in beside her and started the car in one fluid motion, quickly adjusting the mirrors and pulling the car out of the gas station and onto the interstate. "Because, Erin's getting married in Richmond and Mom will kill you if you don't show up."

"I should have booked a flight," Daria said, looking out the window at the quickly passing scenery. "Why couldn't she just stay married to the first one until I graduate and Mom doesn't have any power over me?"

Quinn laughed. "Come on Daria, you know Mom will _always_ have some way of getting us to do what she wants. It's what she does."

"That's something to look forward to."

"Jeez Daria, it's not _that_ bad. This'll be fun, a sisters' road trip down the East coast. We've got extra time so we can stop in New York and anyplace you want to go along the way. I've been wanting to spend some time with you since you left for college anyway." Quinn paused for a moment, then quietly added, "It's lonely without you at home."

Daria felt a pang of guilt at her sister's words. Quinn had driven up from Lawndale to pick her up, apparently expecting some kind of sisterly bonding, and all she'd been doing for the last two hours was bitching about the trip. Sighing she said, "That sounds… fun, as long as we do something besides shopping."

"I have tickets for a show. We can go to a museum or whatever too."

"Where'd you get the money for that? Last time I checked, you were unemployed."

Quinn laughed, but it came off more bitter than amused. "Did you already forget the other constant of Mom? Money equals love. I guilted her out of a few things for this trip in exchange for driving up to Boston to pick you up. She certainly wasn't going to take the time."

Daria was taken aback at how bitter Quinn seemed. Where was the perky airhead she'd grown up fighting with? "What's with the new outlook on life, did disaffection become popular? I'd hate to have to start giving a damn just to stay a social outcast," Daria said, masking her concern with sarcasm.

"Ha," Quinn said, returning her sister's sarcasm. "Things are just… different… since you left. Mom's working really long hours; I don't even see her some days. Dad's getting more and more, y'know, off, and he's drinking more too. I'm doing better at school, which means all my friends have pretty much abandoned me, and I just don't have the time or energy to make any new ones. I guess I'm just tired."

Daria sat in shock for a moment. Her parents had never been the most attentive, but it had always been a benign neglect. It sounded like Quinn was pretty much on her own, at home and at school, and had been for more than half a year. It was surprising she wasn't more jaded.

Before she could figure out what to say, something darted out of the woods in front of the car. Quinn swerved to avoid it, which unfortunately carried the car off the road and down an embankment. Falling down at an odd angle at high speed, the Lexus flipped and rolled several times before coming to rest at the bottom of the incline.

After the world stopped spinning, Daria pushed away the deflated airbag and tried to assess the situation. Her head hurt, and when she instinctively brought her hand to it, it throbbed and her vision blurred. Trying not to think of the implications she checked the rest of her body and found nothing else wrong.

"Daria, are you okay?" Quinn asked, her voice strained.

"I think I might have a concussion, what about you?" Daria asked back, turning to face her sister. She winced and breathed in sharply when she saw her younger sister; Quinn's left leg was bent at an unnatural angle.

"Sorry," Quinn said, the pain still in her voice.

"I think this is the first time I've heard of someone apologizing for breaking their leg." Daria said, her head throbbing.

"I'm sorry for crashing the car," Quinn clarified, "I should have been more careful."

"Quinn, an animal ran out onto the road. This is not your fault. Let's just try to figure out what to do now."

"Okay," Quinn said with a nod.

Daria forced herself to think, despite her growing headache. The first thing she needed to do was splint Quinn's leg, she thought she had some idea of how that worked. Before she could start, she was going to need to get Quinn out of the car. "Open your door, I'm going to come around and take a look at your leg," Daria ordered, opening her own door. She wobbled as she stepped out of the car, finding her balance a bit off.

Quinn pulled the handle and gave the door a push, but it only budged about an inch before stopping. "Daria, I think the door's broken," she shouted out the empty door on the other side of the car.

Daria winced at her sister's loud voice. Having walked around the car she could now see that the driver's side door had been warped in the crash. "Of course it is." Walking back around to her door, she said, "Alright Quinn, you're going to have to come out this door. I'll help as much as I can, but this isn't going to be fun."

"No kidding," Quinn grumbled, pushing up the armrests. With some difficulty, and a minimal amount of screaming, Daria and Quinn managed to get Quinn out of the car and down onto the grass outside.

Standing up, Daria said, "I'm going to go try to find something to make a splint. Don't go anywhere."

Quinn smirked up at her sister. "Very funny."

Daria walked over to the trunk, which had luckily been broken open by the fall rather than warped shut like the door. She grabbed one of Quinn's bags, making sure to get one of the wheeled kind with a collapsible handle, and dragged it over to where her sister was lying down. She pulled out the handle and putting her weight and the bag's against it snapped it off of the bag, almost falling in the process.

"Daria, what are you doing!" Seeing her sister wince at her volume, she lowered her volume and continued, "That was a new bag."

"I'm going to use the handle to brace your leg," Daria explained rather testily, managing to separate the two halves of the handle, "Sorry if that breaks up your matching luggage set." Quinn looked down embarrassed, while Daria grabbed an armful of clothes and went to sit next to her. "This is probably going to hurt."

Quinn grit her teeth and nodded, as her sister got to work. After several minutes, Daria wiped her brow, which she quickly regretted as it made her head pulse in pain, and looked at her handiwork. It wasn't pretty, clothes wrapped around the leg with more to tie it to the pieces of the handle holding her leg straight, but it was the best she could do.

"So what now?" Quinn asked. "No one's going to see us from the road."

Daria looked up the embankment. Quinn was right, a passing car might spot them, but it wasn't likely. Sighing, she stood up, almost falling once before getting managing to get to her feet. "I guess I'll have to walk back to that gas station where we switched off and call for help."

"You mean _we'll_ have to walk back," Quinn said, forcing herself into a sitting position.

"Quinn, you have a broken leg."

"And you have a concussion. You can barely stand up, what if you get tired and pass out?"

"I'll be fine."

"Daria, you can help me walk or I can drag myself behind you. It's your choice," Quinn said, folding her arms.

Daria sighed and stooped down to pick up Quinn. "You always did get your way."

* * *

Daria's head started to droop and she stumbled. She quickly looked to her right, causing another spike in the pounding in her skull. "Sorry Quinn, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Um, maybe we should talk about something." They'd been walking in silence for a while and Daria was starting to doze off more often. "That's what you're supposed to do right?"

Talking made Daria's head hurt, but then, so did everything else. She knew Quinn was right; she had to stay awake. "Earlier you were talking about home, it sounded pretty bad."

Quinn's looked down. "It's not that bad. I mean, I'm not starving or anything and I can get more money out of Mom and Dad than ever. It's just… empty. What use is stuff if I don't have anyone to share it with?"

"You're telling me Miss Popularity can't find someone to hang out with?"

"I'm not really doing that anymore. It takes too much time and it's all fake anyway. Nowadays I just study and do a couple of clubs for my transcript."

"You'll excuse me if I find this a little hard to believe coming from the girl who just freaked out when I snapped her new luggage to make her a splint."

"I didn't 'freak out'," Quinn said indignantly. "Just because I don't want to play the game anymore doesn't mean I don't care about how I look. I like looking good and dressing up, it's fun. You're not exactly dressing down yourself."

Daria looked down at what she was wearing, losing her balance for a moment before Quinn caught her. She had on a tasteful green long sleeve v-neck top and tan slacks; her boots were still there, but she had to admit she didn't wear them everywhere anymore. "Not by choice. Jane forced me to go shopping when she got out to Boston and then stole all my old clothes."

"And you haven't replaced them? Come on Daria, it's okay to like looking nice."

Daria decided to change the subject. "If you're still so into fashion, why don't you hang out with the fashion club?"

Quinn's teasing grin disappeared. "We aren't talking."

"You said something like that earlier. What happened?"

"I grew a brain. I started studying and doing well on tests and Sandi got jealous. She said it was because I was a brain and that made me a loser, but really she was just mad she couldn't do it. The other two just followed her lead. I don't know why I expected them not to. I want to be mad, but I just don't care."

Daria hastily changed the subject again, trying to find some part of her sister's life that wasn't so depressing. "So, you said you're studying a lot. What schools are you applying to? From what you've been saying, I'm guessing Pepperhill's out."

That made Quinn laugh. "Yeah, I plan to go to school to learn, not party." She hesitated, then quietly said, "I kinda want to go to Raft, but there's no way I'll get in. I'm going to apply to a lot of places in Boston. I should be able to get into UMass if nowhere else."

"Why the obsession with Boston?" Daria asked, a little weirded out.

Quinn looked down and blushed. "You're there. I want to get to know you. I mean obviously you don't have to hang out with me or anything. It's just, I missed growing up with you, and you're so cool. You figured everything out before we even _got_ to high school."

Daria didn't know what to say. There was clearly a lot going on at home that she didn't know about, and Quinn seemed pretty depressed. She seemed a lot more grown up too. The whole Boston thing was creepy, but a little flattering at the same time. It might have been the head wound, but Quinn seemed like she might be interesting to get to know and she definitely needed someone to spend time with.

"Daria, look, there's the gas station!" Quinn shouted, pointing with the hand that wasn't around her sister. "Oh, sorry," she continued in a softer voice, "Daria, are you awake? You have to stay up. We're almost there."

"I'm awake Quinn. I was just thinking that it might be cool if you came up to visit on the weekend once or twice a month."

Quinn stopped, Daria almost knocking her over before stopping herself. "Really?" she asked hesitantly, as if it were a trap.

"Yeah, I mean not when I have exams, but—" Daria struggled to keep herself and her sister upright as Quinn turned around and hugged her, tears streaming down her face. After a moment, Daria returned the hug, squeezing her little sister close.

* * *

 **Hello again,**

 **Been a while, huh? Well, as of this writing anyway. Time is immaterial on the internet.**

 **Anyway this one comes from a challenge thread over at the PPMB. Many thanks to Princess_Pasta for the setup.**

 **I think it came out rather nicely, but, as always, I crave the opinions of others. Thanks for reading.**


End file.
